Crown of Midnight - Alternate Ending
by BellaVinter
Summary: Spoilers! An alternative ending of the Throne of Glass sequel Crown of Midnight - this story focuses on the what if's of what would have happened if Celaena had waited a month to leave for Wendlyn, and thereby met her long-lost cousin Aedion Ashryver. Disclaimer: I do not own the first 11 lines of the first chapter. Those were taken from the 53rd chapter of Crown of Midnight
1. Chapter 53 (ending)

_Chapter 53 - Ending_

"Perhaps we'll have some fun with it," the king mused. "Wendlyn is having their Solstice ball in a few months. What a message it would send if the king and his son were to meet their end right under the noses of their own court, on their day of triumph."

Though the captain shifted on his feet at the sudden change of plans, the assassin smiled at him again, dark glee written all over her. What hellhole had she come from, to find delight in such things? "A brilliant idea, Your Majesty."

"It's done then," the king said, and they all looked at him. "You'll leave tomorrow."

"But," his son interrupted, "surely she needs some time to study Wendlyn, to learn it's ways and-"

"It's a two week journey by sea," he said. "And then she'll need time to infiltrate the castle in time for the ball. She can take whatever materials she needs and study then onboard."

Her brows had lifted slightly, but she just bowed her head. The captain was still standing, stiffer than usual. But the prince...

"No. Winter storms are still raging, and what good is a champion if she never reaches Wendlyn's coast?"

He was a smart boy, putting it as a practical concern, but the king could feel the magic crackling in the air, and the glare he sent the captain made the king wonder if he would snap right there, in the council room.

"Very well. A month from now then. The weather will be mild, and my champion will still have time to find a way into the ball," the king said. He wasn't particularly interested in their petty dramas, but it wouldn't serve any purpose to have the prince expose himself now.

"Thank you." The prince nodded, and went back to glaring at the captain, whose shoulders had loosened a bit.

"A month from now then," the assassin smiled, bowing once again before leaving the room, taking the attentions of the captain and the crown prince with her.

 _RattleTheStars_

"Wendlyn? Of all places, why Wendlyn?" Celaena raged, pacing back and forth in Chaol's room a few hours later. She hadn't been back here since that awful night.

"Because it's where you need to go," Chaol told her, still avoiding her eyes. He had made a habit of that ever since the night before.

"It's because of who – what I am, isn't it?" she asked cautiously. Even if she would never forgive him, if she _could_ never forgive him, she would never doubt that he wanted to protect her.

"Yes. Wendlyn is the land of the Fae. You can go there and never look back," he said, looking at the fire, still not at her.

"I have to come back," she whispered.

"No!"

She thought about the king's threats. About him killing Chaol and butchering Nehemia's family. Those were deaths she couldn't carry on her shoulders.

"Yes. For reasons you have no business knowing, I have to come back," she stated firmly. When she walked by him again, he grabbed her wrist, looking up at her face. Whatever he saw, whatever he remembered about her, made him jerk back. "Celaena -"

"No. This isn't up for discussion. If you will excuse me, I have a continent to study," she proclaimed, setting towards the door.

She didn't want him anywhere near her. Not ever again, not when she kept seeing that room, that broken body. So why did it hurt her that he wouldn't touch her?

Celaena was still wondering about that when she reached her rooms, not bothering to visit the library for books about Wendlyn just yet.


	2. Chapter 54

The crown prince was seething. He was sending her to Wendlyn, shipping her off to a different continent just because she didn't want him anymore. Which was also strange, because the last thing Dorian remembered before she knocked him out the other night, was her scream when that _creature_ took Chaol away.

She loved him. Anyone could see that. And even though a part of Dorian was _glad_ she'd never forgive Chaol, he kept wondering if that was too selfish, even for a crown prince of Adarlan. He wanted both of them to be happy, after all – the preferably not with each other.

Dorian was on his way to see Chaol, to demand an explanation, when he heard hurried steps down the hallway on his left. The one he would be walking in just a few seconds.

He turned his head around the corner, the rest of his body still hidden from sight. And there he saw her.

Stalking down the hall, the assassin looked distracted. Her usual feline grace was replaced by a frenzied walk, and her eyes were focused forward, not taking in her surroundings like he had gotten used to. She even stalked right past him, not looking in his direction. Whatever had just transspired between her an Chaol, it had rattled something in her.

Before Dorian knew, he was turning around and walking back to his tower.

 _RattleTheStars_

Celaena slept fitfully that night, her dreams riddled with visions of the tomb and Elena.

"Go to Wendlyn," the queen kept saying. "Do what has to be done."

Had Celaena been awake she would probably have demanded to know why, or just asked her to shut up and be patient. She was doing exactly as she asked, she just had to wait a month. A month she would have to spend contemplating, not how to get into the castle in Varese, but how to avoid murdering the most respected royal family in all of Erilia. Respected, not feared. Nothing like the king of Adarlan.

She couldn't fake their deaths, it was simply not possible, but she couldn't throw Chaol and Nehemia's family to the wolves either. She was a killer not a murderer, even though she had been toeing the line more and more recently. First Grave, now Archer. Strangely, of all the people she had killed, those might be the ones she regretted the least. If she was being honest with herself, she didn't regret them at all.

Archer's betrayal still burned. While she now had a feeling the Nehemia had orchestrated her own death, it didn't change the fact that Archer had hired an assassin to do it, and for his own gain at that.

The light of Eyllwe would never burn again.

Celeana spent the next day in bed, telling Philippa to send anyone away, even the prince.

 _RattleTheStars_

When Dorian went to the assassin's chambers the next day, her maid sent him packing almost immediately. The only thing that kept her from throwing him into the hall first was probably his title – and the fact that he was bringing Celaena chocolate cake. While Phillipa took the cake and brought it in, she didn't let him come along. And when the woman didn't come back for a while, Dorian gave up and went off to the library instead. He still had some research to do when it came to his heritage.

And he had a feeling that if he didn't find out how to control it soon, he would snap.

And then he would hang.


End file.
